Jun 10, 2007

I just started reading The Mouse that Roared, a collection of essays by Henry Giroux that examines the influence of the Disney Corporation on American life. In particular, I am both fascinated and repelled by the planned private town of Celebration, Florida, Disney's attempt to design the perfect American community.

Now, my children grew up watching those Disney videos, and I recall being choked up at Old Yeller, so I admit to a certain sentimentality toward some aspects of the Disney canon. Still, there is something inherently creepy about this as-yet unincorporated corporate community that more resembles The Truman Show than it does Beaver Cleaver's Mayfield.

I have never had the urge to purchase or rent a Disney vacation home, although I have been to DisneyWorld and Epcot Center a few times. I suspect, though, that I might find it difficult to de-Disneyfy myself, were I of such a mind; it is well nigh impossible to escape the tentacles of this corporation built on catering to a desire for escape.

2 comments:

I too have hot/cold feelings about Disney. I truly enjoy some of their work, but some of it makes me gnash my teeth (like a cleaning teenager?). The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 really impaired my ability to respect Disney's handling of American/world culture.

It was a punch in the gut to all fans of classic literature; or, perhaps that's merely projection.

And, as for the wider cultural aspects, the flavor of Amway seems to have imbued this entertainment company with a sense of lifestyle-making that I find distasteful irregardless of who's doing it; it's the whole groupthink mentality. It's scary.